Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had ordered "every necessary
step" to be taken to prevent Jewish ultranationalists from trying to derail his
Gaza withdrawal plan through violence and road blockades.

Sharon lashed out at far-right Jews in newspaper interviews on Thursday after
a day of clashes between security forces and anti-withdrawal activists in Gaza
and on Israel's highways.

It was the worst day of violence between Israeli police and soldiers and
ultranationalists bent on scuttling Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish
settlements in the occupied Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank in
August.

"Every incident of this sort of rampaging must stop. I have given clear
instructions. We will take every necessary step so that life in Israel proceeds
normally," Sharon told the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

On Wednesday, anti-Arab Kach radicals squatting in a house in a Palestinian
district outside the Gush Katif settlement seriously wounded a Palestinian youth
by throwing rocks at his head from close range during stone-throwing clashes.

Israeli soldiers later stormed the building and ousted the Kach members,
mainly youths, who had been intent on establishing a stronghold of resistance to
the planned settler evacuation. Thirty rightists were arrested.

Sharon, in an interview with the Haaretz daily, called the assault on the
Palestinian youth "an act of savagery, vulgarity and irresponsibility. We cannot
let a small group of law breakers impose a reign of terror."

Opponents of Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians
seeking statehood have threatened to bring Israel to a halt ahead of the
pullout.

Some ultranationalists have also threatened violence, and the lives of Sharon
and the army chief of staff.

"They have said they will set the country on fire. They won't set anything on
fire. Every one of us must understand and fight this dangerous phenomenon,"
Sharon told Yedioth Ahronoth.

Israeli media said security forces would put a number of radicals under
detention without trial and that judicial officials would demand harsh sentences
for demonstrators blocking roads or those who throw nails on them.

On Wednesday, suspected opponents of the Gaza withdrawal threw spikes and
spilled oil on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, causing major traffic jams and at
least 20 tire blowouts.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered the perpetrators be charged with
willfully endangering human life on the roads, a charge that carries a 20-year
maximum jail term, Haaretz said.